Sunday, June 30, 2013

This past week we've been preparing for Katie's surgery tomorrow to amputate her right front leg. Last Tuesday Katie went to see a canine oncologist for an FNA appointment. The oncologist thought the humerus had not eroded enough to allow an FNA to be done -- and she was right. We took that as a good thing.

We are probably making it harder on ourselves by all the fretting we're doing. In the meantime, Katie just lives for the present and keeps things simple. Katie looked like this yesterday afternoon when I offered her a cookie:

If you have a moment and think of it, keep her in your thoughts tomorrow and for the days ahead.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/5.6; 1/100 second at ISO 6400; center-weighted; +0.7 exposure compensation; normal JPG.)

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Friday afternoon at GIG was warmer than I preferred. I don't particularly like photographing dogs with their tongues dangling and with them panting, trying to stay cool. Some Greyhounds are not overly fond of warm weather, so I try to find shade wherever possible for them as I photograph.

Irish, Maia, and Midori belong to a volunteer of the Greyhound adoption group that ran GIG this year. I thought it might be nice to have the hounds pose by one of the numerous rail fences that cover the Gettysburg field. I had a certain image in mind before I had them pose, but it required a different time of day.

Anyway, the volunteer's father offered to hold the leashes while I photographed. I particularly like how all three Greyhounds are "smiling" and have their ears at half-mast; Maia (in the middle) is starting to tongue-dangle but not enough to be distracting. I knelt down below their eye level and tried to keep Sickels Road off in camera right out of view. If I had to do this over I would've asked for the leashes to be down on the ground and then threaded through the fence.

When I returned home and started processing the photos in this session I was amused by Irish's (on the left) expression -- almost as if he saw something funny was going to happen to me. I hadn't noticed this at the time I took this picture. I like their relaxed faces and how they're all looking in my direction.

Tintype and wet-plate post-processing is kind of an interesting effect at the moment. I had one preset to mimic 19th century film processing, so I applied it to this picture since we were in a Civil War battlefield. I am pleased with how this turned out overall.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 10-24mm zoom lens and SB-400 flash; shutter-priority with shutter speed set to 1/250 second; aperture set to f/14 at ISO 200; -0.7 exposure compensation; center-weighted metered; shot in RAW, imported in Lightroom and DxO Film Pack 3.)

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

I don't get to practice with my off-camera flash much, so tonight I had Sadie go outside with me. I got to practice for all of five minutes.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens, SB-400 on shoot-through umbrella, and PocketWizard Nikon MiniTT1 and FlexTT5; program mode; shutter speed 1/60 second at f/5.6 and ISO 400; auto white balance; converted to black and white using Lightroom; normal JPG.)

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

I had hoped for more clouds in the western sky for a more dramatic sunset, but what the heck -- it's Gettysburg and there are so many places to photograph. I had Miami pose for me in the grassy fields north of the peach orchard. I added some fill in post-process because using a flash here would've made its presence too obvious.

The Sherfy barn, which sits next to Emmitsburg Road, is the red building in the background.